Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Sampling

Pfeifer, Phillip E...

Technical Note

Sampling

Pfeifer, Phillip E.

QA-0513 | Published February 24, 1997 | 20 pages Technical Note

Collection: Darden School of Business

Product Details

This note explains the basics of sampling. It defines and discusses the concepts of random sampling, the law of averages, and the central limit theorem. It covers the sampling of both continuous uncertain quantities (where the sample is summarized by the sample average and sample standard deviation) and categorical variables (where the sample is summarized by the sample proportion). The note carefully explains that the results of random sampling from an infinite population are equivalent to repeated and independent outcomes of an underlying probability distribution.